Braga has an odd but charming mixture of cosmopolitan urbanity and
ancient allure. Expensive clothing stores sit next to fruit stalls beneath crumbling tiled
palaces, massive flat-screen TVs adorn the walls of otherwise rustic courtyard
restaurants, and the expanding city’s newer, car-filled avenues are lined with stalls
selling cheap goods to the passersby. The city is small enough to be manageable but big
enough to be interesting, allowing for excellent wandering opportunities as well as a
great launching point for a visit to the nearby Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês.